


Heart Made out of Steel

by lovelyirony



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Anyways, Awesome Pepper Potts, F/M, Pepper's amazing and honestly? Do not deserve her, Pepperony - Freeform, Tony Stark Has A Heart, how pepper came to be a PA: one version of it, tony is in love (as usual), well guess who got bored of accounting? pepper, well not me but that's a whole other story, without pepper what are we? godless men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:54:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25488799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovelyirony/pseuds/lovelyirony
Summary: Pepper knows that Tony has always had a heart. It's really obvious.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Comments: 7
Kudos: 60





	Heart Made out of Steel

**Author's Note:**

> Based off of a prompt I got on tumblr! One of the favorites that I've written. Let me know what you think!

Tony Stark cares. Which is kind of surprising when a person first gets to meet him because he just does things without thinking, which isn’t really associated with kindness in any way. 

Pepper Potts is a young woman (who barely feels like a woman even though she can legally buy wine now) and she is struggling to make it to work on time, has on a hand-(shittily)-tailored skirt, and thinks that accounting can suck it because she actually doesn’t like it as much as she thought she did, mainly because it’s not challenging. 

She spent the last two hours of her last day learning how to knit. 

How to knit. 

So then she switches to Sudoku and the New York Times’ crossword puzzle (which, by the way, is stupidly hard for no good reason) and then reviews over other people’s numbers for fun. She never volunteered for that, or never thought she would. 

But then she did and she found out that Sam Wittenger has had some very interesting numbers to report that apparently, no one else has questioned. 

She’s not sure if it’s because she’s stupid or if she doesn’t trust authority as much as the next Tom, Dick, or Harry, but something seems off. 

So Pepper goes to their superior and he basically tells her that she’s just being paranoid. 

“Women tend to be emotional,” he chortles, as if he’s not just invalidating everything she’s bringing up professionally. 

And she can’t even say shit about that because then it’s, “oh no need to get unreasonable, sweetheart” and there goes her job. 

But she starts to notice that she keeps getting the worst assignments and then she gets put on job probation. 

On probation. 

Which, by all accounts, doesn’t make sense because you’re supposed to report when something is going on, and she doesn’t get why her boss is being so…something about this. 

So, she emails Tony Stark. Because he might answer. 

Oh, he answers. 

Tony has nothing better to do with the rest of his day and he’s been ignoring Obie’s requests for a meeting with Justin Hammer because that’s just like asking if you want to voluntarily stick a knife up your nose. Gross and entirely unnecessary. 

And then he gets an email from someone from accounting. 

Accounting never has problems that they can’t fix on their own. Ever. So there’s this chick named “Ms. Potts” and she tells him that there’s a mistake on someone’s account, but they won’t do anything about it. 

Tony looks through the numbers. Takes about twenty minutes, but only because everyone in accounting generally does their paperwork on time–except for Gary, but that’s because Gary is paranoid about the government and uses at least three hours out of the day to research aliens. Tony loves him. 

Someone’s been using money for a little bit of extra cushion. Which Tony would get if he was a corrupt businessman who cheats his employees out of health insurance. But he doesn’t. 

And then he finds out that Sam Wittenger likes to entertain models at mansions and while it’s not really putting a dent in anything, it’s more of the professionalism mood that gets it. 

That, and the fact that the SO of the whole accountant unit, Mr. Leopold Smith, put Ms. Potts on job probation. 

For essentially nothing. 

And then Tony does some digging and even if Smith works in a company that is known for technological growth, he’s really not that good at hiding any tracks. 

So Tony pays a visit to accounting on a Monday morning, lays it all bare, and tells them both to get the fuck out so he can start hiring more people. 

“You’re believing a rookie over me?” Wittenger fumes. 

“Yes,” Tony says. “Her newness does not negate her concerns. Besides, should I believe a new employee who shares concerns about the company and errors or the fact that you used your company card for funds transfer and then spent it on two women who are being really obvious about scamming you for spa money? Hmm, really hard decision. So hard, really.” 

Tony then swivels to Leopold. “And you. I would’ve thought you had better morals then that, but it appears you have all the sense of an amphibian that likes snow. So I’m going to fire you. You get the rest of your paycheck and some of that extra pay until you find another job. Hammer Industries is always hiring.” 

The crowd is silent as Tony walks around. 

“Where is Ms. Potts?” 

Pepper doesn’t bother to try to cower or hide. She walks towards him. 

“I’m here.” 

“Excellent work. You’re hired as a PA.” 

“Who says I want to be a PA?” She asks. The crowd murmurs; no one really says no to Tony Stark. 

Tony raises an eyebrow. 

“I see two Sudoku books from here, a copy of the New York Times which is just outlandish, and one of your knitting needles is in your hair. You’re bored and I am, and I mean this in a factual way, one of the least-boring people in business. So follow me if you want the chance for the interesting.” 

Pepper does follow him. Because he’s noticing way more and she wants to know why. 

“It’s an unofficial part of my job,” Tony mentions when she asks. “If I don’t notice things about people and what they do, I tend to not do as well with business, and I really don’t like that.” 

So Pepper starts working as a personal assistant. 

It’s fun is what it is. Even if she has to remind Tony about fifty different times that he has a meeting at seven, and yes he’s supposed to get there at six-fifty. Even if she has to chuck a couple of snacks at him. 

“…are these fruit snacks? Pep, I’m a billionaire.” 

“Sorry, the grocery store didn’t have that fancy cheese for three hundred thousand dollars. They were sold out.” She pulls a frowny face and puts a middle finger up to flip him off. 

Tony loves having Pepper as a PA. He gives her an astronomical pay raise within the first three months of her job. 

“Why?” Pepper asks. 

“It’s a Thursday. Nothing really happens on Thursdays.” 

“That cannot be the reason.” 

“I’m a mystery, Pep. No one can figure me out, Rolling Stone said so.” 

“Rolling Stone also said that they thought Bob Dylan was a good singer and I’ve doubted their opinion ever since.” 

Tony gasps in mock offense, and the question is forgotten. 

…at least, until two hours later when Pepper realizes that he never gave her an answer. 

And as she works for him and gets to know him better, she realizes that really? Tony is a caring guy. 

He goes on random trips to send things to Rhodey in care packages: things like toys from fast food chains, one random packet of soy sauce, and a couple of letters and pictures of updates. 

Happy Hogan gets treated to the best pay, benefits, and even is on a friendly enough level with Tony that sometimes they watch boxing matches together and discuss the dynamics of television shows and what should be a rerun and what should be forgotten. 

And he pays attention to things. Like what kind of wine she mentions once in a conversation, or what Rhodey writes about in letters. He’s considerate and caring. 

So when the articles come out about if he truly has a heart, she has to smile. 

“Of course you do,” Pepper says simply. 

“And how do you know?” 

“You get pulp-free orange juice,” she answers. “But not because you hate it. You actually don’t mind that disgusting mess. But I do and I don’t always eat enough for breakfast and you let me raid your fridge to find said-pulp-free orange juice. Which is a very nice thing to do.” 

“Oh.” 

Tony doesn’t say anything, but he smiles after she clicks her heels and tells him that she needs to pick up his dry-cleaning after they finally got back to her.


End file.
